| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: Gertrude, but he baffled her curiosity by omitting from his
account everything except its commonplaces.
"I think her conduct very strange," said Jane. "She insists on
going to town by the four o'clock train. I consider that it's not
polite to me, although she always made a point of her perfect
manners. I never heard of such a thing!"
When they had risen from the table, they went together to the
drawing-room. They had hardly arrived there when Trefusis was
announced, and he was in their presence before they had time to
conceal the expression of consternation his name brought into
their faces.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: don't think, sir, that my impudence has been passed upon all the rest
of the family.
HARDCASTLE. Impudence! No, I don't say that--not quite
impudence--though girls like to be played with, and rumpled a little
too, sometimes. But she has told no tales, I assure you.
MARLOW. I never gave her the slightest cause.
HARDCASTLE. Well, well, I like modesty in its place well enough. But
this is over-acting, young gentleman. You may be open. Your father
and I will like you all the better for it.
MARLOW. May I die, sir, if I ever----
HARDCASTLE. I tell you, she don't dislike you; and as I'm sure you
She Stoops to Conquer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: and inferential particles in English, and by the nice sense of tautology
which characterizes all modern languages. We cannot have two 'buts' or two
'fors' in the same sentence where the Greek repeats (Greek). There is a
similar want of particles expressing the various gradations of objective
and subjective thought--(Greek) and the like, which are so thickly
scattered over the Greek page. Further, we can only realize to a very
imperfect degree the common distinction between (Greek), and the
combination of the two suggests a subtle shade of negation which cannot be
expressed in English. And while English is more dependent than Greek upon
the apposition of clauses and sentences, yet there is a difficulty in using
this form of construction owing to the want of case endings. For the same
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